Seashells by the Seashore

On Saturday we got up early-ish and packed up the car for a day trip and headed to the Coast! We timed it perfectly and Logan had his morning nap in the car. Seaside is 90 minutes or so from Portland and it’s a pretty drive. It’s one we haven’t done in a long time. Too long.

First stop: hike. We did the Tillamook Head hike just south of Seaside. It was a little weird, we drove through a residential area and then there was a new gated community of condos and just across the street from that (at a dead end street) there was the trailhead and parking lot.

Sadly, we did not bring Bella on this day trip. I debated back and forth on it. We almost always take her on these adventures and hikes and she LOVES the beach!!!! But we planned on going out to lunch and knew we couldn’t leave her in the car while we did that, so we left her home. 🙁 I felt really guilty about it, too, but honestly it was the best move because this hike turned out to be a bit harder and not really dog/kid-friendly than we were expecting.

It was an uphill climb right from the start. It wasn’t particularly hard, per se, but it was deceptively steep. We climbed 800 feet up–which doesn’t sound like much, really, but it was especially considering that 800 feet elevation gain was in the first mile and a half. Also, the trail was really slippery. The hike is in an old growth forest with giant trees and ferns and lush greenery. It clearly rarely sees the sun and so it never dries out. It wasn’t muddy but the trail was SLIPPERY. There were lots of rocks and tree roots that were covered in invisible slime! We both slipped and almost fell a few times.

We could sort of hear the ocean off in the distance, but it wasn’t really that close and there were only small glimpses of a view.

It was a really cool trail and very peaceful and quiet. Not a lot of people on it, but we did pass a few. It was also really humid! We were very sweaty by the end of this.

We got to a part of the trail that just ended. It’s hard to see from the photo below but it’s just a drop off.

On the other side of the drop-off, there was this wall that we’d have to climb up. We decided it was a good time to turn around. I was a little worried about the descent because of how slippery the trail was, and I knew that we were going to want to turn around soon anyways to stay on a schedule for lunch and naps, etc. It turned out to be the right move. So we turned around and hiked back down the trail.

There were some “steps” on the trail that were helpful and some of the roots kind of made “stairs”, too. Michael was struggling with the baby backpack on this hike (another good reason to turn around early). We both had to look down the whole hike to watch our footing, so it was kind of a neck strain.

We got back down the trail and changed clothes, changed Logan, and packed everything up. This is the condo community right at the trailhead:

We hiked 3.5 miles in almost 90 minutes. The calorie burn was great!

For lunch we went to the Firehouse Grill in Seaside. It was a cute cafe with decent reviews online. We got there just after the lunch rush, so we got a table right away and service was pretty good. I fed Logan and he was pretty content to watching everything that was going on in the restaurant. Then our food arrived. I was famished.

I got the clam/mussel chowder and a crab cake appetizer. The chowder was pretty good, not the best, but ok. The crab cake was great! And it was topped with fresh crab meat. Logan LOVED the crab! He devoured it.

Logan had a few bites of the chowder but wasn’t really a fan. But he ate so much of the crab and crab cake. He loved it!

Michael got a burger and fries and shared some of his fries with Logan, who was sort of interested but would immediately spit out the fries to eat the crab when I offered it to him. Haha!

Next stop: THE BEACH!

It was the first time Logan has ever been to the beach, or seen sand! We had no idea how it was going to go. It had the potential to be awful but we got lucky. Logan loved it! He immediately wanted down and wanted to run on the sand. He squatted down to pick up shells and tried to eat some of them (of course!) and then he got distracted by everything else.

The bucket and shovel I got for $1.50 a few weeks ago was the best money ever spent:

It was such a fabulous day. So perfect. Logan loved the beach. He loved running on the sand and didn’t struggle walking in the sand like we thought he would. He had a great time and it was so fun to watch him experience the beach for the first time. We will definitely be back. Soon, I hope.

It was a little after 3pm at this point and Little Man was getting tired. He threw a bit of a tantrum when it was time to go. He didn’t want to leave the beach! But we had to drive back to Portland. Logan fell asleep in the car immediately and we had an easy drive home. Home for a bath to get the sand off the little man, dinner, then bedtime. And Michael and I got to enjoy some dinner, a beer and House of Cards. 🙂

7 Responses

I always love all your pix. So great seeing all your activities. My kids are all big outdoors people. And one of girls said the other day that she remembers being outside, all the time, as a family all the years she was home. And we do lots of outside things when the kids are home now. Really great that your son is being raised that way.

I can’t remember, is this how you have always been? Raised that way? Or something you had to change as part of your anti obesity life style? What about your hubby?

My husband has played competitive tennis since age 7. Still plays all year. He was on swim teams for years and we have always gone to pool, even before we had kids. And we bike. And we garden. So, he was a big (positive) influence on me. My family of origin was not great influence on me. But did much better with my younger brother.

Thank you Vickie! Michael and I both want Logan to be raised outdoors as much as possible. Hiking, biking (eventually) and doing stuff outside–not sitting in front of the TV or computer. We want him to have experiences that he’ll remember when he’s older. That’s great that your kids feel that way too!

Great question! My family was very active when I was growing up. As a kid we did a lot of camping and backpacking–which as a kid I hated but now I think back on it and am grateful for it (and wish I had enjoyed it at the time). I did sports as a young kid–soccer, gymnastics (hated both of it) and swimming (loved that). It really wasn’t until I was about 17/18 that I started gaining weight. And I was not doing any physical activities at that point.

My husband did not grow up backpacking, hiking etc. I know he was on the tennis team in school but didn’t do a ton of sports. But he grew up in Texas/Louisiana etc and they moved around a lot so I’m not sure if that just wasn’t conducive to doing team sports/hiking/camping etc?

My kids all learned how to swim as preschoolers. Like swimming strokes by age three. My youngest was swimming strokes and diving real dives off the board by age three. The other two were not diving until slightly older. Youngest was also riding a bike and roller skating at 3-4. Other two were a little older when they started, but not by much. We start with the preschool skates on carpeting at home. Everyone did preschool gymnastics which I highly recommend. Really good for coordination and balance. They can all still do a cartwheel, handstand against wall, etc. They all can ice skate. They all can run. They can play basketball or volleyball, etc. Pretty much anywhere they are invited, they can DO the activity. That makes a big difference. But all of that is learned skills.

We definitely plan on swimming lessons when Logan is a little bit older. He’s not quite there yet. I’ve taken him to the pool a few times now to play in the toddler section. He’s a bit scared of it still and will just cling to me, which is ok, but maybe next year we can start swim lessons.

One thing that helped us was taking a shower. When they got used to water on face and head, pool was easier. Also on back in tub helped. Also picking up desired items from pool steps or bottom of pool where they had to put face in to get them. Pre swimming skills.

Bath tub is great starter because you can begin with an inch of water or even no water and go from there. When you get to water in the ears depth, then real progress. My son went from really not wanting to be on his back in pool to comfortably working on back float the next summer (I think this was in the 2-3 age range). He is 27 now, so long ago. After him, I learned to put girls in shower as baby/toddlers and we never went thru that on your back/ears in water fear thing again.